In June, the oil group BP publishes energy production and consumption statistics for the previous year by sources and by countries. That allows to having a precise and definitive idea of the world situation, of CO2 emissions, of the evolution of the repartition between different fossil fuels, renewable and nuclear power and especially of the mid-term trends which are appearing. They allow to dismiss many wrong ideas regarding energy transition and to carry a judgment on the different proposals which are circulating in this domain.

The first observation is about energy consumption which, as a whole, is not failing, even ...

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The oil prices slump last week has given to the crisis resulting from the corona virus outbreak a new dimension. It has weighted on the financial markets which were starting to hope thanks to the reduction of the mortality rate and the announcement of the first measures about the end of lockdown. The quotation with a maturity date of the American petrol (measured by the WTI index) went even into negative territory and the Brent index, which is a representative one for the rest of the world, went below 20 dollars per barrel. It had fluctuated between 50 and 60 ...

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In the past, oil crisis were associated with a sharp increase of the barrel price, as at the beginning of the Seventies or in 1979, which had generated an inflationist wave, followed by a restrictive action by the central banks. Through a sharp augmentation of their interest rates, they had caused recessions. These last days, it is the fall of the barrel value, between 30 and 40%, which generates a deep worry. Financial markets, already affected by the corona virus epidemic, have plummeted and the trend was amplified by the American president declarations. Oil company shares or industrial equipments for ...

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